Tag Archives: exhibition

A few photos from Monday night’s private view of the Open Media Exhibition at the Art Yard, Cradley Heath. Two of my artworks are in this show, it’s on until the end of September. It’s great seeing how the gallery had been done up, now theres more space for artwork and art activities.

I have two pieces in this show that’s on until the end of September. The gallery is on Reddal Hill Road in Cradley, pop in and take a look around the exhibition.

I was also invited to the last event of Phase 1 of Project U-neek, not displaying artwork this time however. This last event in Phase 1 featured the artwork of Alexandria Robinson-Sutherland herself, a nice idea to be able to show the artwork of the project’s creator at the last event and finalise this phase. The venue for this event was Green Space Salons, which is an unusual but interesting venue for an art event. Alex’s work primarily focuses on the natural and organic with an emphasis on the floral form, in this instance the artwork beautifully compliments the organic and ‘green’ nature of the salon.

The wall space inside the salon was used extremely well, the artwork was spread out between a couple of rooms and could easily be seen when passing through the space. You can see how the artwork fits in perfectly with the overall feel of the venue and I’m sure many patrons of the salon, who wouldn’t usually be familiar with the artist’s work, will be interested in the colourful, floral canvases.

The performing artist at this event was Tandy (or Tandi- not sure of the spelling sorry, would love to give a link) who performed a couple of cover songs and a beautiful original song, a very engaging singer. Again, the music was perfect for bringing the whole event together and was suitable for the venue and the artwork.

As this time Alex was the interviewee, the interviewer was Daniel Blyden who I thought asked just the right questions about artwork, methods, practices and Project U-neek. It was interesting to hear all the hard work gone into the project and also Alex’s thoughts on her own work. I found it quite intriguing that she said although she receives a lot of comments liking her work to Georgia O’Keeffe she cites Picasso as being her main creative inspiration. Personally I see a resemblance of floral and organic forms to O’Keeffe however the issues addressed do differ- I can definitely see Picasso’s difference of perspective and importance of the line reflected in Alex’s work.

This event also featured a great spread of refreshments, selected free treatments in the rooms of the salon and also a great variety of raffle prizes. I actually won a prize myself- afternoon tea for two in the Artwork Cafe where the previous event was held. Ah, lucky number 16.

In between the scheduled points of the evening there was plenty of time to meet other people and network. These events are particularly good for networking as they are formal openings but uphold a very relaxed atmosphere, perfect for emerging creatives with social anxiety like me. The atmosphere and the people behind Project U-Neek make an extremely comfortable platform for artists and those interested in the art world to come together and celebrate.

This blog post is a little overdue, however I’ve had a lot of stressful family and personal stuff going on since I went to the July 4th event at The Artwork Cafe, Birmingham– so is life.

The Artwork Cafe 04/07/2013

I was invited by Alexandria Robinson-Sutherland, the creator of Project U-Neek, to display at the event alongside the featured artist/illustrator Agata Duda. I took along a few pieces of disaster spectacle artwork produced on my MA course I completed last September and some current smaller pieces from a project I’m currently working on. I usually work in series of images along a certain theme so I figured taking two series of works would demonstrate this and also allow me to talk about the theme and subjects behind each series.

The venue was great for displaying artwork/illustration on the wall for patron of the cafe to enjoy- I like that Project U-neek’s idea of displaying artwork in places other than studios and galleries. It manages to bring artists and their artwork to an audience that may not decide to walk into a gallery or have a specific interest in the art world. The focus on local and emerging artists also helps with recognition and experience of displaying artwork which is vital to the emerging artist. In this regard there also seems to be a great support system behind the artists that are selected, this definitely helps with confidence as an artist especially when talking about your own work in front of an audience.

There was also an interview with the featured artist conducted by Alex. An insight into the artist’s methods and motivation is always a great accompaniment to viewing their artwork. I also think this is an important part of bringing emerging artists to the attention of local and public audiences as I’ve found that sometimes the idea of ‘the artist’ can get misconstrued. In my experience, people are far more likely to talk to you about your artwork when they’re aware of your inspiration and how you try and present your ideas. It results in far more interesting conversations anyway.

The event had lovely refreshments and a raffle with a wide variety of prizes. In between announcements and the interview there were a couple of live performances by Asher Soul which I thought really bought the event together and showed support of all local art forms.

Overall this was a great event for the local community, the venue itself and ,of course, emerging artists.